Chemistry Lab Safety and Regulations: Introduction

Introduction

All clinical laboratory personnel, by the nature of the work they perform,
are exposed daily to a variety of real or potential hazards: electric
shock, toxic vapors, compressed gases, flammable liquids, radioactive
material, corrosive substances, mechanical trauma, poisons, the inherent
risks of handling biologic materials, to name a few. Each professional
must be "safety
conscious" at all times! Laboratory safety necessitates the effective
control of all hazards that exist in the clinical laboratory at any time.
Safety begins with the recognition of hazards is achieved through
the application of common sense, a safety-focused attitude, good personal
behavior, good housekeeping in all laboratory work storage areas, , above all, the continual practice of good laboratory technique.
In most cases, accidents can be traced directly of two primary causes:
unsafe acts (not always recognized by personnel) unsafe environmental
conditions. This section discusses laboratory safety as it applies to the
clinical laboratory.

Occupational Safety Health Act (OSHA)

Public Law 91-596, better known as the Occupational Safety Health Act
(OSHA), was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1970. The goal of this federal
regulation was to provide all employees (clinical laboratory personnel included)
with a safe work environment. Under this legislation, the Occupational Safety Health Administration (also known as OSHA) is authorized to conduct
on-site inspections to determine whether an employer is complying with the
mandatory standards. Safety is no longer only a moral obligation but also
a federal law. In about half of the states, this law is administered by
individual state agencies rather than by the federal OSHA. These states
still fall within delineated OSHA regions, but otherwise they bear all administrative,
consultation, enforcement responsibilities. The state regulations must
be at least as stringent as the federal ones, many states incorporate
large sections of the federal regulations verbatim.

This standard applies to all exposure to blood or other potentially infectious
materials in any occupational setting.

It defines terminology relevant to such exposures mandates the development
of an exposure control plan.

This plan must cover specific preventative measures including exposure
evaluation, engineering controls, work practice controls, administrative
oversight of the pro gram. Universal precautions personal protective
equipment are foremost among these infection control measures. The universal
precautions concept is basically an approach to infection control that presumes
that all human blood, tissue, most fluids are treated as if known to
be infectious for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus
(HBV), other blood borne pathogens. The standard also provides fairly
detailed direction for decontamination the safe handling of potentially
infectious laboratory supplies equipment, including practices for managing
laundry infectious wastes. Employee information training are covered
regarding recognition of hazards risk of infection. There is also a
requirement for HBV vaccination or formal declination within 10 days of
assuming duties that present exposure. In the event of an actual exposure,
the standard outlines the procedure for post-exposure medical evaluation,
counseling, recommended testing or post-exposure prophylaxis.

This subpart to OSHA's Toxic Hazardous Substances regulations is intended
to ensure that the hazards of all chemicals used in the workplace have been
evaluated that this hazard information is successfully transmitted to
employers their employees who use the substances.

Informally referred to as the OSHA "HazCom Standard," it defines
hazardous substances provides guidance for evaluating communicating
identified hazards. The primary means of communication are through proper
labeling, the development use of material safety data sheets (MSDSs), employee education.

Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories

This second subpart to OSHA's Toxic Hazardous Substances regulations
is also known as "The OSHA Lab Standard." It was intended to address
the shortcomings of the Hazard Communication Standard regarding its application
peculiar to the handling of hazardous chemicals in laboratories, whose multiple
small-scale manipulations differ from the industrial volumes processes
targeted by the original HazCom Standard. The Lab Standard re quires the
appointment of a chemical hygiene officer the development of a chemical
hygiene plan to reduce or eliminate occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals.

There are other federal regulations relating to laboratory safety, such
as the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act. In addition, clinical laboratories are
required to comply with applicable local state laws, such as fire building codes. The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly
National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards [NCCLS]) provides excellent
general infection control guide lines in their documents GP17-A2 (Clinical
Laboratory Safety; Approved Guideline, Second Edition) M29-A3 (Protection
of Laboratory Workers from Occupationally Acquired Infections; Approved
Guideline, Third Edition), respectively.

Safety is also an important part of the requirements for initial continued
accreditation of health care institutions laboratories by voluntary
accrediting bodies such as The Joint Commission (TJC) (formerly the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations [JCAHO]) the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American
Pathologists (CAP). TJC publishes a yearly accreditation manual for hospitals Accreditation Manual for Pathology Clinical Laboratory Services,
which includes a detailed section on safety requirements. CAP publishes
an extensive inspection checklist as part of their Laboratory Accreditation
Program, which includes a section dedicated to laboratory safety.